Bloomberg: Comcast is already violating conditions of NBCU merger

[onehandle]

Source: ARS Technica

News giant Bloomberg has filed a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, accusing Comcast of violating conditions it agreed to as part of its merger with NBC Universal, which created a $30 billion entertainment colossus.

Bloomberg argues that Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, has exiled its financial news television network to cable-dial Siberia, far away from the “existing news neighborhoods” where it groups major news channels like MSNBC, CNBC, and Fox News.

Bloomberg’s dispute with Comcast goes to the heart of objections raised by critics of the NBC Universal deal, who had argued that Comcast could use its market power to favor its own channels to the disadvantage of rival programming, in this case Bloomberg TV.

For its part, Comcast says it “does not, and since the transaction has not, ‘neighborhooded’ channels on our systems.” The cable giant argues that the FCC’s “neighborhooding” requirement would only apply if Comcast-NBCU actually did neighborhood news or business news channels in the future, but since it does not at present, the FCC’s order approving the merger “does not support Bloomberg TV’s request.”

Read more: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/06/bloomberg-comcast-is-already-violating-conditions-of-nbcu-merger.ars

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Shocked! I am Shocked!

[boppers]

1. I have comcast. Here's my news channels:

24 CSPAN
25 CSPAN2
39 NWCN
44 CNN
45 HLN
46 CNBC
48 FNC
106 CSPAN3
128 MSNBC
129 BTV

So, Bloomberg aren't in the 30's-40's section, but neither is MSNBC... I *like* the idea of changing to a more "neighborhood" kind of system, but Bloomberg's complaining about something that doesn't exist, or only exists in certain areas (the article notes the DC market).

[cstanleytech]

2. I believe the court (or the FCC) is going to have to render a ruling atleast

on the part of what neighborhood means if not now then eventually as its open to interpretation but as your your cable example its not very accurate because the channel lineup changes from region to region with comcast.

[boppers]

5. A neighborhood ruling would be nice....

Defining it, at least.

[JJW]

3. Terminated

Very happy I terminated Comcast.

[boppers]

4. Am I the only one who got a chuckle out of "cable-dial"?

Who in the heck uses a dial to change channels anymore? I don't think they even make that kind of interface for cable anymore, if they ever even *did*.

For the under-30 group, an explanation:
We used to change TV stations by standing up, walking over to the machine, and turning a dial or two. There were anywhere between 0 (yes, really) and 20 stations to watch, depending on the place you lived in. I think I had 4, growing up in the hills outside of Tucson, Arizona.

I'm talking about the things on the right side of the screen:


Oh, and stations were these things akin to channels, only they had a physical radio "station" (hence the name), and the further away you were, they harder it was to see and hear clearly. If you *really* wanted to see something on a television, you could go on the roof and move/bend some wires around in an effort to get a radio signal.

[lbrtbell]

6. Can we dispense with the condescension toward the young?

We still have TV stations to this day, except they broadcast in digital now, instead of analog--and that only happened in 2009.

FYI, cable TV was accessed with a dial in its early days. We had cable in 1974, in a town much smaller than Tucson, and there was no such thing as a cable box. (We also got MTV long before you, or NYC, did.) The word "dial" is still, to this day, often used to refer to the TV tuner--as in "Don't touch that dial!" Just as that word is also still used with reference to telephones, even though the rotary dial is pretty much history.

And I'm pretty sure the "under 30 group" recognizes the dial on the TV, being that the YouTube app for the iPad has an icon of a TV set with dials on it.

Before you talk down to a group of people, it pays to have some idea of what you're talking about. Otherwise, you just show your own lack of knowledge about technology, new AND old.

[boppers]

8. My friends include 16 year-old godchildren, and a new pair of twins on the way.

They don't know what a walkman or mixtape is, or how to dial a phone, or why people would put movies on a "tape", so I occasionally have a need to over-explain.

I'm sorry if it bothered you.

I did *not* know about analog channel (dial-based) cable in 1974, that is interesting to me.

Anyways, check out this sweet mp3 player:

[Odin2005]

11. I'm only 25, but we were rural poor and didn't have cable until 1997

I remember when I was little there only being 5 channels: CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, and PBS.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Here in my area of Philly

home of Comcast, the channels are:

4 CNN
30 HLN
46 FNC
78 CSPAN
79 MSNBC
80 CNBC
103 BTV
104 CSPAN2
105 CSPAN3
106 FBN
107 Current TV

I.e,, theyre all over the place in little groupings. So they really don't have much of a leg to stand in terms of them being segregated (nationwide) as many of the channel line-ups were re-jiggered based in many cases, on dealing with so many "non-native" now-Comcast-owned cablecos.

[boppers]

9. After looking at some of the various listings...

It looks to me almost like the goal of BTV is to force Comcast to *create* a "news channel neighborhood", and put Bloomberg in it.

[w4rma]

10. And if that was their goal, is that wrong? (nt)

[boppers]

12. Well, it's chaos every time a new channel is added.

Got to bump every channel above it up by one.